Dinosaurs and man should not live together.

I started making websites almost eight years ago. When I look back now, it seems like a very long time ago. I’ve learned lot over the years, and so much about website development has changed as technology continues to evolve. We have new browsers like Firefox, Safari, and Chrome. We have many new web technologies, such as Wordpress, jQuery, Flex, and Silverlight.  We have whole new platforms such as video sharing (YouTube), social networking (Facebook), and micro-blogging (Twitter). And we have the little known fact that Google and Wikipedia secretly rule the world…kidding.

And while so much has changed, one thing remains the same. I’m still making websites for Internet Explorer 6 (release date August 2001).  It’s a like a dinosaur in modern times, it’s an anachronism, in my opinion.  It’s outdated, yet we still code websites for it. And while we may like to point the finger at the people who haven’t discovered or upgraded to newer, better browsers, I would argue that we should blame ourselves.  We’re entirely too soft on our visitors. By perpetually supporting the obsolete and doing very little to encourage browser upgrading, we’re stifling our own creativity and stunting the growth of the technology that we claim to be pushing forward.

The initiative to urge people to upgrade to a more modern browser is slow.  At the turn of the year, Google urged its Gmail users to upgrade to either Firefox or Chrome.  In Norway, a strong campaign has several leading newspapers, search engines, ISPs and the Yellow Pages sporting notifications to their users to upgrade to a modern browser.  And that’s saying nothing of countless sites (such as dearie6.com, end6.org, stopie6.org, iedeathmarch.org, and idroppedie6.com) that detail IE6’s inadequacies, provide info on upgrading, and in some cases, provide javascript to deny or urge IE6 users to upgrade.  But despite these efforts to push new browsers and technologies, IE6 is still here.

The year is 2009 and things are evolving.  As we have seen with the rotary telephone, the compact cassette or the VHS tape, a time comes when a technology must be labeled obsolete and abandoned in order for everything else to move on.  That is happening right now with analog television broadcast and the compact disc, and it should be happening with Internet Explorer 6, again, in my opinion.

So, I ask this of you: upgrade.  Even if it’s from Internet Explorer 6 to Internet Explorer 7, upgrade.  If you browse from a work, school, or government computer, contact the systems administrator and urge them to upgrade.  And even if you’re not an Internet Explorer user, be sure to keep your browser updated.  Even if you upgrade to a newer browser, tell your friends, family, dentist, whomever:  UPGRADE.  Every upgrade from an older browser is another step into new technologies and new user experiences.  Say goodbye to Internet Explorer 6, please.

Resources:
http://www.dearie6.com/
http://www.end6.org/
http://www.stopie6.org/
http://iedeathmarch.org/
http://idroppedie6.com/
http://goodbyeie6.org.ua/
http://www.w3counter.com/globalstats.php
http://a.deveria.com/caniuse/#agents=All&cats=All&eras=All&statuses=All&sort=score
http://www.tgdaily.com/html_tmp/content-view-40785-140.html
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/02/19/norway_ie6/
http://www.cjohansen.no/en/browsers/norway_tells_ie6_users_to_shape_up